Boxes Everywhere

So I've been creeping Offbeat Home and IKEA Hackers incessantly for the past few days... I'm so tired of having boxes all over the place and I want our apartment to feel more like an unpacked, lived-in HOME.

First step is to do some unpacking, I suppose. We have so much stuff... EVERYWHERE...



The fact that the boxes are all over a larger space doesn't make the task of unpacking any less daunting, unfortunately.

 I did a bunch of unpacking on Sunday, collapsed a bunch of empty cardboard moving boxes that were just sitting there, taking up space. And threw them out, much to the dismay of a small cat who thinks they're there solely as a jungle gym. Moved the stuff I don't want to deal with yet into the second bedroom... where I discovered 10 bags full of clothing and blankets (TEN! Why the heck do I own so much clothing?! Most of it *is* mine, I know that for sure) and boxes everywhere already.

We're so completely sunk when we finally get Rory's desk from my parents. Not to mention that neither of us even has an office desk right now.

So with that first step of unpacking comes the keep/donate to charity/toss sort-out. Especially with kitchen things. I have a beautiful KitchenAid set of pots and pans that my mom bought me when she was working at Linens N Things, and we finally started using that once we moved. But we still have, in a box somewhere, all the mismatched pots and pans we were using previously. Some of which I'd like to keep for our camping bin, but some that I know we'll never use again that should go to Goodwill. The same goes for knives and large cutlery... there's some that we use, and a lot that is just sitting in a box taking up space, being useless.

side-note: I'd also like to know where the wok went, I made special fried rice on Sunday and it was nowhere to be found.

Even with that sorting done, I'm about 90% positive we'll still need another panty-type closet of some description. Currently we're using the shelves in the front hallway closet to store both our linens AND our canned food... what a bizarre combination that is.

On the bright side of life, we finally have curtains in the living room and dining room... makes the ceilings look taller, the apartment feel a bit more put-together. I need to hem the curtains, but I have the hemming tape so it's a doable task. The blinds for the window in the office still need to be bought, but since we're not even using that room right now it's not a huuuge deal.

Oh, and we don't have dining room chairs right now, either.

To be completely honest, pretty much ALL of our furniture is hand-me-down stuff from my parents and grandparents. And pretty much all of it is in really good condition. I think part of the problem is that I'm slightly frustrated because a) it feels like we still don't have very much room for our stuff, and b) not all of it feels like it really belongs to us ANYways because we didn't pick it out and buy it together.

I mean, we bought two little LACK end tables and a shelving unit and things... it's just... frustrating sometimes, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful for the help and support from my family... I just wish I felt more like a grownup sometimes. That's all.

The biggest problem with the lack of funds for getting things done. Can't get new chairs until we can afford them, can't afford new chairs, blah blah blah.

It's a vicious circle. Maybe I need to just step outside of the circle and do my unpacking, hey?